00:00I Manning was on Bussin' with the Boys podcast, which is Will Compton, remember he played here,
00:07and Taylor Luan, longtime Tennessee offensive lineman, was on their podcast and finally gave
00:16details on why he refused to play for the San Diego Chargers. Remember the 2004 NFL draft
00:26started with the San Diego Chargers at number one, selecting Eli Manning, even though Eli Manning
00:33and his agent said, don't pick me, I will hold out for the year and put my name back into
00:40the draft
00:41in 2005. And the Chargers selected him anyway, and then after they really realized that, hey,
00:51he's not playing for us, they made a trade with the Giants, sending Eli Manning to the Giants
00:58for, by the way, a pick package that resulted in Phillip Rivers with the number four pick,
01:06the kicker Nate Kading, how about Sean Merriman, because they got a first round pick in 2005,
01:13and they got a fifth round pick, which they later traded to the Buccaneers for left tackle,
01:18and a good one, Roman Oban. So they actually made out pretty well with the actual trade,
01:25and they got a future Hall of Famer in Phillip Rivers, and the Giants got a two-time Super Bowl
01:30MVP, and I think a future Hall of Famer as well. But Eli Manning on this podcast for the first
01:37time
01:37gave details as to why he didn't want to play for the Chargers. The Chargers were an okay team back
01:47then. Marty, leading into 2004, Marty had been with the Chargers for two years. They'd gone 8-8 and then
01:564-12 in his second year. Those were his first two years in San Diego after leaving Washington
02:03at the end of the 2001 season, because Dan reneged on his promise and said he was going to get
02:10back
02:11involved and take some control away from Marty. So they parted ways, and Marty ended up in San Diego.
02:18But here's what Eli Manning said on the podcast. He said that during the lead-up to the draft,
02:28he said the Chargers sent every top person in their organization to New Orleans, which is where he was
02:33living with his family, Archie and Mom. At the time, Marty Schottenheimer was the head coach. The GM
02:40was A.J. Smith. The first trip they made to New Orleans, both Marty and A.J. Smith were on
02:48the trip
02:48together, along with members of the Spanos family. They were the owners of the Chargers. And he said at
02:56one point during the visit, Manning was at dinner with the Chargers front office, head coach and
03:05general manager, and he started to have the realization that this was not a healthy situation
03:11to end up. He said, quote, I just didn't feel like they were the most committed team
03:16to winning at the time. Marty Schottenheimer was the head coach. He was awesome. I had great respect
03:24for him. But over the course of the night, the Chargers came off as an organization in disarray
03:30to Eli. Eli said, they came to work me out in New Orleans. We went to dinner, and there was
03:36just
03:36friction, friction between the head coach, general manager, and the owners. Now, let me interject.
03:43A.J. Smith and Marty Schottenheimer hated each other. That is, that's legendary. They had one of the
03:51more volatile GM head coach relationships in the history of the NFL. They didn't communicate,
03:59people said, for over a year. Marty coached the team. A.J. Smith picked the players on the team.
04:09Marty, remember, got fired after a 14-2 season. He went in his final three years, 12-4,
04:199-7, and 14-2. And following that 2006 season, remember, they lost a heartbreaking playoff game
04:28at Jack Murphy Stadium to the Patriots, where they actually had intercepted Brady to end the game.
04:35But the guy that intercepted it started running around and fumbled it back to the Patriots
04:40on the interception return. The Patriots then went on to win the game. But Eli Manning said
04:47that there was clear friction between the head coach, general manager, and the owners.
04:52They were all yelling. They were all fighting with each other. He said, we're at the Marriott
04:57restaurant. Schottenheimer's mad. He's like, we're in New Orleans and we're eating at a Marriott?
05:05What? He's pissed. They're kind of bickering. It just didn't seem that there was a lot of agreement
05:12on things. And they didn't seem they were committed to building a great winning franchise
05:16in that moment. Yeah, I can imagine. That's a bad call. You're in New Orleans, arguably the greatest
05:23food city in our country. And you're at the Marriott for dinner? That's true. Marty should have been
05:30upset about that. So anyway, after the visit, Eli says, it was me. It was not my dad for many,
05:40many years. And he said, over 22 years, my dad's gotten a bad rap that this was him.
05:47This was his decision that he wasn't going to let me play for AJ Smith in this particular
05:54organization. And in fact, Eli said, it was my decision. And my dad tried to talk to me,
06:02talk to me, talk me out of not going to the chargers. He said, quote, my parents were really
06:10supportive. My dad didn't like the idea. He didn't like it at all about him forcing the trade. Now he
06:18came to my defense and supported me after everything was going down. Afterwards, he took a, he took the
06:23brunt of criticism because he came to my defense and people were saying, oh, you played New Orleans
06:29all those years you didn't win. So you're trying to dictate where your son's going. And he just kind
06:35of bit his tongue and said, well, this is what Eli wants to do. And I support him. And he
06:40kind of did
06:41some media to save me from doing all of the media and taking the hits. Man, that, that Manning family,
06:49they really are the first family of football. I mean, Archie's being, he was in that moment,
06:54he was being crucified for getting in the middle of it and forcing a trade. And he didn't, he was
07:01against it. Eli said it was all Eli. Eli, you know, said I hate, my dad had nothing to do
07:08with it.
07:09I was the one that didn't want to play for that organization because of that visit. It was clear
07:15that they were in disarray. They're arguing in front of me. Lots of friction. So they forced the
07:21trade. He and his agent, Tom Condon, uh, forced the trade and the rest, uh, is history. Um, he did
07:28say that the very awkward picture, you know, that they took with the commissioner at the time, Paul
07:34Tagliabue, uh, Archie, his mom with him holding up the chargers Jersey after he was picked number one.
07:41Uh, he said that his mother basically tried to get rid of it. Like we don't need this. And Archie
07:50stepped in and said, yeah, why don't we just save that Jersey? Cause they get handed that Jersey.
07:55They get to keep it, I guess on the draft. He said, we might need that for a rainy day.
08:00It might be worth
08:01something. Um, so there you go. Uh, the story of why he forced that trade in 2004. And, you know,
08:11I think about those 2004, uh, chargers, that team went 12 and four, uh, it went 12 and four with
08:19Drew
08:19breeze, you know, at quarterback, you know, Drew breeze was there. He was, um, you know, he was the
08:25comeback player of the year that year. He was a pro bowler. He was an AP also, uh, quarterback selection.
08:31Um, he threw 27 touchdowns, seven interceptions that particular season. And they lost on a missed
08:39field goal in overtime, uh, at the end, a missed field goal at the end of regulation, uh, that would
08:45have given them a playoff win over the jets. And, um, and they lost, uh, ended up losing in overtime.
08:52Marty had some of the worst luck in the post season, terrible luck that jet game. When Katie
08:59misses, Katie missed a chip shot at the end of regulation to win it. And then 2006, that game's
09:06won against the Patriots. That game is over. And instead of the DB going down, he tries to make a
09:13big play on the run back and fumbles it back. And then Brady drives him down the field, uh, for
09:19the win.
09:20Um, yeah, Marty had some bad luck in the post season. You know, people would say about Marty,
09:26you know, one of the greatest regular season coaches in NFL history that he tightened up a
09:31little bit and he, um, in the post season and he coached way too conservatively in the post season.
09:39Uh, there may be some truth to that. You know, that's not, that's not a crazy, um, uh, crazy
09:46thing. Ultimately Marty's overall, you know, regular season record was 201 26 and one, a 613 winning
09:55percentage for different teams, you know, Kansas city, uh, Cleveland, Cleveland first, then Kansas
10:01city, then Washington, then San Diego. Um, he had such a great career, but he was five and 13
10:09in the actual playoffs. And I think if you go through that playoff, uh, game by game, I think
10:16all of them were just gut wrenching. I mean, you think about the two Cleveland losses to the drive
10:21and the fumble, you know, with two chances to send, uh, Cleveland, uh, to the super bowl, that
10:27a loss to the, uh, Patriots that I mentioned, there were two playoff games in which chip shot
10:33field goals were missed for wins, but some people would say that followed Marty's career
10:38in those places, Marty played not to lose. And so those games came down to a couple of
10:44plays and they didn't necessarily need to come down to a couple of plays. Uh, but because
10:52he coached those games conservatively, they were in, uh, put those games were put in danger
10:57of him losing them. But there you go. Eli, uh, Manning, the story, uh, around why he forced
11:03the trade in 2004.
